“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means if you think I’m leaving you alone in here for the night, you’ve lost your mind.”
His words shock me, and it takes me a moment to respond. “You’re not leaving?”
“Nope.”
I don’t know what to say. “Rauk, you don’t have to stay.”
“Actually, I do.”
“Is it too hard to get out at night?” I question.
“I could probably manage.”
“Then why aren’t you?” I ask in exasperation.
I feel his body shift closer to mine. “Man, this ground isuncomfortable.”
I can’t help the smile that tugs at my mouth. “Is the king not used to sleeping on the ground?”
“No. That’s what my incredibly soft, comfortable bed is for.”
I snort out a laugh. “Your royalty is showing.”
“I’m okay with that. You’d say the same thing if you slept in my bed.”
“Ha! Is that a line you use often?”
“You’re terribly cruel, Harper.” But I don’t hear any heat in his words.
“Well, I’m sorry you don’t have your soft bed to lie in tonight,” I tell him. I turn my face towards him, suddenly needing to know. “How was the battle going when you left?”
“We definitely had them on the run.”
“That’s why you shouldn’t have come after me! You should have stayed to fight.”
I can’t see him in the dark, and yet somehow, I know his eyes are on my face. “Harper, nothing would have kept me from coming to you.”
I laugh, trying to lighten the mood because surely he didn’t mean them the way they sounded. “I mean unless we were going to lose the war, right?”
“No, Harper, not even then. I would have come for you even if all three kingdoms fell.”
Chapter 46
He changes the conversation abruptly, and I’m grateful because I have no idea what to say in response to his words. “You know I realized something when I went back to my home.”
I grasp at this new conversation desperately. “What’s that?” I can’t see him, but I can hear him and feel the heat of his body next to mine.
“I realized how loud you are.”
It takes a moment for the full impact of his words to land on me. “What? I’m not loud.”
“You really are.”
I reach out to shove him and end up pretty much just rubbing my hand across his chest. I pull it back, feeling burned. “I am not loud,” I huff.
“You are. Do you know how quiet it was when I went back? It felt like a tomb when I returned.”
